The whole planet faces the same emergency, and Europe has become, after China, the centre of the Covid-19 dissemination. All institutions, governments, communities, all of us are asked to act responsibly as individuals and as a community. We have to change our life to protect ourselves and others. 

Civil society too is adapting to these circumstances. Many were forced to close their centres and stop their activities. Many have found creative ways to be useful to their communities, to offer social and cultural tools against isolation, to volunteer for providing support to the weak and vulnerable which often happen to be the poorest.

We can collectively be proud of it. At this moment, we feel more united wherever we live than ever before, even at a distance. We know that “solidarity with all” is the message that has to be transmitted in all our communities if we want tomorrow to be better than yesterday was.

Our thoughts and active solidarity also go to the vulnerable people: the precarious workers, the homeless, the migrants – both undocumented and legally recognised – and asylum seekers, all the people constrained in collective spaces deprived of the best possibility to protect themselves from contagion. We are sure that everyone of us will do its utmost not to leave anyone alone inside the crisis. We wish all of us courage, hope and positive energy. We must respect the distance today. But we will overcome the crisis more united than ever before.

The European Civic Forum will work to give visibility to civil society’s actions concerning the present crisis and to support their demands in front of the European institutions.

Let us know what you are doing, let us know what you are asking to institutions, let’s share your challenges and difficulties, let’s share the good things you witness. This will allow the ECF and its members to do their best to communicate and alert about the help needed.